What to expect when trying to re-enter Brazil after over-staying visa

I've been here in Brazil since the 12th of June, 2012. I'm thinking of going home to the US to visit my family for Christmas. My Brazilian fiancé and I had originally wanted to travel together to visit my family, and get married while we were there and then get my permanent stay visa for Brazil from the Brazilian Consulate in LA. However, we've given up on this after 4 attempts because it's become too expensive and it doesn't look like the US Consulate in São Paulo will grant her a tourist visa any time soon. No, we didn't mention anything about our desire to get married during the visa interviews.

She went to both cartorios here where we live to ask about the process involved with us getting married, mentioning the fact that my visa expired quite some time ago. They told her that I/we would have to go to the Federal Police and go through a process that can take up to 18 months and cost as much as R$4000 to "regularize my visa" and obtain some sort of a permit to remain in the country, I'm presuming a permanent visa. They said that after I have that visa, we can get married. They told us, and I confirmed with the County Clerk back in the US, that it is much quicker and cheaper for us to go to the US with her on a tourist visa and get married there. However, the Consulate doesn't seem to like to grant tourist visas to dark-skinned people that aren't wealthy, even restaurant owners.

My question is twofold:
You mentioned that it is actually the law here that we can get married with minimum hassle. Since my visa expired about 4 years ago (Dec 18th, 2012 to be exact) does this apply to me? So, should I/we look for a different cartorio that will perform the wedding ceremony without the rigamoral mentioned by the other cartorio?

If I do decide to go visit my family for the holiday, how long will I have to stay away/wait before the Consulate in LA will grant me another tourist visa, even a short one? We can go to the cartorio here the day after I arrive to get married and then we can go to the Federal Police and convert my visa to a permanent residence one. She has been looking up information of government websites and has informed me that it seems that the law has changed and now one only has to wait 90 days before they can apply for and be issued a new 90 day tourist visa. Problem is, I don't want to go back to the US and find out that I will actually have to wait 18 days before applying.

And what about amnesty programs? Are there any in the works that you or anyone else on this thread are aware of?